Gone are the days when chemists handed over sanitary pads wrapped in paper or dark-coloured bags. Here is a group of men, all chemists from Ulhasnagar, who have kept a donation box in front of their shops to appeal to people to drop sanitary pads in the box that would then be distributed to the under-privileged women in the slum and tribal areas.
Around 10 such sanitary pad donation boxes are kept at various chemist stores in Ulhasnagar.
These chemists are supported by NGOs Urja Foundation and Samata Education Trust. The aim is to promote good menstrual hygiene among women from all sections of the society.
Suresh Ahuja, owner of Mahadev Chemist, a 64-year-old store in Ulhasnagar, first embraced the concept in his shop. He said, “Earlier, we used to collect clothes to be distributed among the poor in the city. We then came across the concept of a sanitary pad bank, and thought this was something new and we needed to create awareness.”
He added that one aim was also to remove the shame or stigma attached with the monthly cycle. “In our society, we do not talk about the menstrual cycle. We give pads wrapped in paper or black bags. We want to wipe out these old thought processes. Instead, we inform women who visit the shop about the pad box and appeal to them to donate sanitary napkins. They can donate a few pads or an entire box. This concept breaks the stereotype of society while we get to help women from poor families.”
Bhavna Chabria of Urja Foundation has participated in this campaign and will be guiding chemists where to distribute these pads.
Chabria said, “The concept was shared by me with all the chemist associations and all of them were positive and enthusiastic to implement it. No access to menstrual hygiene is the fifth biggest killer of women in the world. We started an awareness campaign in villages and slums about menstrual hygiene and this pad bank of the chemist association will help us in distributing these pads to these women. Once the bank is full, people from the chemist association will distribute these pads in slum areas like Imli Pada, Azad Nagar and later will move towards tribal hamlets.”